Liberated News & More

Archive

Daily Archives: 12/06/2011

IMF: We wuz hacked(boingboing) The New York Timesreports that the International Monetary Fund (IMF) has been hit with what is described as “a large and sophisticated cyberattack whose dimensions are still unknown.” The breach happened before the IMF’s managing director was accused of trying to rape a hotel worker.

The fund, which manages financial crises around the world and is the repository of highly confidential information about the fiscal condition of many nations, told its staff and its board of directors about the attack on Wednesday. But it did not make a public announcement.Several senior officials with knowledge of the attack said it was both sophisticated and serious. “This was a very major breach,” said one official, who said that it had occurred over the last several months, even before Dominique Strauss-Kahn, the French politician who ran the fund, was arrested on charges of sexually assaulting a chamber maid in a New York hotel.

International Monetary Fund Reportedly Hacked (threatpost.com) (…) The organization is also a user of RSA’s SecurID tokens and informed employees on June 8 that it would be replacing their tokens following the security breach at RSA. There is no indication that the hack of the IMF computers was linked to the breach at RSA.

Recent weeks have brought a slew of reports of attacks against high profile Western corporations, government and quasi governmental organizations.They include a breach at Citibank that netted credit card information on 200,000 customers, as well as attacks on L3 Communications and Lockheed Martin. The latter attack is believed to have resulted from the theft of information used to program SecurID tokens, RSA said.

(eagainst) Two people were injured in a suspected revenge bombing at a government building in China, state media said on Saturday, the second such attack attributed to disgruntled locals in recent weeks.

The detained suspect, a man surnamed Liu, allegedly set off the explosion in the northern city of Tianjin on Friday out of ‘revenge against society,’ Xinhua news agency reported.

Two people were slightly injured in the incident at a municipal government building in the Hexi district of Tianjin, a major city about 100km (60 miles) southwest of Beijing, the report said.

Calls to the Hexi district government offices went unanswered on Saturday.

China sees thousands of protests and other public disturbances each year, often linked to anger over official corruption, government abuses and the illegal seizure of land for development.

Bomb attacks have been increasingly frequent in recent years and are typically carried out by individuals angry over perceived injustices, business disputes or other pressures associated with China’s rapid modernization.

(examiner) Saturday the infamous, international Internet hactivist collective known as Anonymous launched a successful DDoS attack against the Spanish National Police website. The attack is a direct response to the Friday arrests of three individuals alleged to be associated with acts of cyber civil disobedience attributed to Anonymous.

Operation Policia (#OpPolicia) is the name for the successful DDoS (distributed denial of service) attack that paralyzed the Official National Police website (Página Oficial del Cuerpo Nacional de Policíawww.policia.es) for hours on Saturday, making it inaccessible to visitors. The DDoS attack is a protest tactic often deployed by Anonymous.

Friday Spanish authorities announced they had arrested three men suspected of participating in cyber-attacks against the Sony PlayStation Network as well as other corporate and government websites – cyber-attacks associated with the mysterious and powerful international Internet hactivist collective known as Anonymous.

Immediately after the arrests, Anonymous issued a press release. The following is an excerpt of that release:

Greetings Spanish Government:

We know you have heard of us; We are Anonymous. It has come to our attention that you deemed it necessary to arrest three of our fellow anons, … which you claim to be the leaders of Anonymous and for their participation in DDoS attacks against various websites…

First and foremost, DDoSing is an act of peaceful protest on the Internet. The activity is no different than sitting peacefully in front of a shop denying entry. Just as is the case with traditional forms of protest…

Regardless of how many times you are told, you refuse to understand. There are no leaders of Anonymous. Anonymous is not based on personal distinction…

Arresting somebody for taking part in a DDoS attack is exactly like arresting somebody for attending a peaceful demonstration in their hometown. Anonymous believes this right to peacefully protest is one of the fundamental pillars of any democracy…

You have not detained three participants of Anonymous. We have no members and we are not a group of any kind. You have, however, detained three civilians expressing themselves…